Glitter Rose

A Collection of Short Stories

The Glitter Rose quartet is set against the stunning background of Carmine Island where a decade ago spores from deep in the ocean blew in by a freak of nature and settled there. Their strange phosphorescence brings a glitter rose dusk at certain tides. Colourless at first, the sandy beaches rapidly become carpets of tiny, shining, rose-coloured grains as the sky darkens after sunset. These spores bring fierce allergies to the island locals. And maybe other, more sinister effects too. Follow Tinashi’s journey as she moves to the island, settles into island life and begins to discover just what is really happening on Carmine Island.

If you are coming to these elegant, truthful and sensuous stories for the first time I envy you. They’ll haunt your dreams, yes, but what fabulous dreams.

– Trent Jamieson

The Glitter Rose Collection features 5 short stories by Marianne de Pierres – four previously published and one new story. Each copy of this limited edition print run will be signed and presented in a beautiful hardbound cover, with internal black and white and colour illustrations.

Table of Contents

Reviews

“These are stories that move you, they are important stories in a world of stories. The way they speak, where their concerns are situated, how the story flows is important. It is different in many ways to other things I’ve read – particularly short stories, and even collections. I feel that this collection by Marianne is a significant and important contribution to the field of speculative fiction.” Read the whole review here.

— Transcendancing

“Strange, deep, haunting … the stories in Glitter Rose will challenge you, and you may find some of the remarkable and vivid imagery creeping into your subconscious. I definitely recommend this worthwhile collection. Just be aware that these may look simple, but they’re not casual reading. You’ll need to bring something to the table, too.”

— Geek Speak Magazine

“Brought together in this compendium for the first time, a collection of short stories that helped to launch Marianne’s writing career which demonstrate beautifully the talent behind her work. All appeared in print in various compendiums over the years and yet when you read them back to back you get an eerie sense of beauty as well as the lovingly crafted characters that inhabit this world. Each individual tale builds upon the previous making it pretty hard to put down and whilst this offering is quite short there is a bonus title at the end that demonstrates an almost Poeish twist to the author that allows the reader to wonder where her talents end. A seriously delightful collection and one that I can’t recommend enough to the reader. Great stuff.”

— Falcata Times

“… I loved this quartet: the stories are quietly intriguing, evoking a sense of dread, being creepy and sinister without being exactly horrific (although there is a bit of that as well) and they would be enough to recommend this collection but there is still the cherry on top: the last, unrelated story In the Bookshadow in which a nameless narrator works at a book shop selling fantasy novels to different types of people and it stock filled with ironic observations about then genre and those who read it …”

“After reading Marianne de Pierres’s short story collection, I realized that the book’s packaging was apt. Glitter Rose is small hardcover that’s compact and gives off the vibe that it’s elegant and reliable. Pierres’s prose is similar: it’s concise, fast-paced, and quite atmospheric. Arguably it’s the latter that is the author’s strength. Four of the five stories included here focus on her fictional Carmine Island and what immediately grabs you in the sense of foreboding and eeriness. Looking at it objectively, there’s nothing remarkable when it comes to the plot of Pierres’s stories and neither is the language fanciful nor precious. Instead, the author focuses more on characterization and developing her setting without being overt when it comes to the details. Take for example the protagonist Tinashi. It’s clear that she’s haunted but it isn’t until the third story, “The Flag Game”, that the specific nature of her crisis is revealed. Yet in the initial short story, “Glimmer-by-Dark”, we already realize that she’s running away from some tragedy. Another character that shines through the text is Carmine Island. It takes a skillful writer to make the setting a unique individual and Pierres succeeds here. This is a good example of how a writer can conjure images in the reader’s mind without ramming description down our throats.”